FBI arrests 5 Los Angeles County residents in connection with international drug ring

Federal authorities on Thursday arrested five residents living in Alhambra, Rosemead, San Pedro, Long Beach, and Los Angeles who prosecutors say were involved in an international drug ring.

FBI agents fanned out throughout Los Angeles County, simultaneously arresting Denny Vuong of Alhamba, Henry Liu of Rosemead, Shaun Rosa of San Pedro, Howard Morris of Long Beach, and Cristian Raul Gastelum-Sanchez of Los Angeles, said FBI Spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. In the same operation, agents arrested an additional three suspects in Seattle, Wash. and seven others in Vancouver, Canada.

Four other suspects in the case had previously been arrested in Los Angeles and remain in custody, Eimiller said.

Two grand jury indictments filed in Los Angeles in May charge a total of 30 defendants with a series of narcotics-related offenses, including conspiracies to distribute, import and export controlled substances. The indictments further allege that the organization imported MDMA, or ecstasy, from Canada to Southern California in exchange for other drugs.

According to the indictments and other court documents, the defendants were members of related international drug trafficking organizations that worked together to traffic bulk quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin from Mexico to Canada through Southern California, including at locations in Costa Mesa, Compton, Ventura and Redlands.

The drugs would be exchanged for either cash or bulk quantities of ecstasy, according to prosecutors. Some of the defendants allegedly also conspired to transport narcotics to Australia from Southern California.

The drug trafficking organizations included members of Canadian, Mexican, Serbian, Chinese and Sudanese organized crime groups, according to court documents.

The defendants allegedly used modified cellular devices with military-grade end-to-end encryption to communicate with each other regarding their drug trafficking business, including the transportation of narcotics between the United States and Canada. The devices are manufactured primarily by Canadian companies that remove most functionality from the phones, leaving only an encrypted email system, court papers state.

In total, law enforcement seized 944.7 pounds of cocaine, 19.8 pounds of heroin, 102.7 pounds of methamphetamine and 106.1 pounds of MDMA. Law enforcement also seized $811,000 in Canadian currency, prosecutors said.

If convicted of all charges, the defendants would face between 10 years and life in federal prison, prosecutors said.